Leaders Making A Difference

Published
12:00 am CDT, Tuesday, March 25, 2014

ALTON — Most people want to avoid crisis situations, while others embrace them as a chance to make a difference in the lives of others.

Kerry Battles is battle-tested and has a knack for making order from the mess. She leads Enjoy Relief, an Enjoy Church ministry aimed at offering practical assistance to people in times of crisis such as tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes and severe storms.

Battles’ love for helping people caught in consequences of natural disasters comes from a self-described “emergency gene” that fuels her for this type of service.

“It’s part of my background,” said Battles, who was a state-certified EMT in the flood of ‘93. “Part of my makeup to go out and do something and help folks.”

She said there is an emotional response to helping those who are in very difficult situations.

“It’s just a great need that’s out there,” Battles said.

Through the battle

Battles worked at Alton Memorial Hospital during the flood of 1993, which propelled the Alton area to the national spotlight. The hospital sent out two teams for disaster relief, one led by Battles.

One of the locations the team responded to was a Grafton home that needed to be gutted. What Battles saw when she arrived would have nauseated the average person, but she was prepared.

The carpet was still wet from flood waters that had receded from the ceiling and Battles saw a lot of muck, mud, debris and slime.

Not only that, she noticed a putrid smell as the flooding caused sewers to back up. Insulation was also wet and ceiling tiles fell due to saturation.

“Everything was just a terrible mess,” she said.

Her team stripped the residence to its core.

And now, 21 years after that task she works alongside a team that seems to possess the same “emergency gene” she has.

“They love doing it,” she said. “I love doing it.”

Chainsaws

Enjoy Relief, which has been an established ministry for two years, keeps growing. A total of eight people were members until recently when the group doubled.

“It’s all coming together,” Battles said. “It’s all falling into place to be a well-rounded ministry. So I’m excited.”

Items people have donated within the last year include a box trailer with air conditioning, two chainsaws, one generator, and a water purification system.

And they are putting their skills to use. Enjoy Relief engaged in a chainsaw training session at a St. Louis home of a couple that attends the church.

The team sharpened its skills, as Battles said, learning how to use chainsaws to dismantle brush and tree remnants from a 2013 tornado.

“I found that chainsaws are very temperamental,” Battles said. “We went to practice and then to help them out as well, so it was good all the way around.”

Though Battles never used a chainsaw before, she finds humor in the training experience.

“I kind of enjoyed using the chainsaw,” she said.

Sandbags

Madison County Federal Emergency Management Agency led Enjoy Relief in training about how to use sandbagging machines. The group learned in February how to produce a sandbag every three seconds at the Madison County garage in Edwardsville.

“We were definitely highly motivated to learn how to use that machine,” she said. “So we’re growing and training. And if there is ever a need we’d be more than available for that.”

Enjoy Relief is ready to serve people at their most vulnerable moments. With the weather most favorable for tornadoes beginning in April, they are charging their batteries now.

Enjoy Relief will also partner with radio station 99.1 FM to clean up blighted areas in the St. Louis area through a project called Serve St. Louis, Battles said.